n as Willoughby's _Avisa_ which, as having a supposed
bearing on Shakespere and as containing much of that personal puzzlement
which rejoices critics, has had much attention of late years, is not
strictly a collection of sonnets; its poems being longer and of differing
stanzas. But in general character it falls in with the sonnet-collections
addressed or devoted to a real or fanciful personage. It is rather
satirical than panegyrical in character, and its poetical worth is very far
from high. William Percy, a friend of Barnes (who dedicated the
_Parthenophil_ to him), son of the eighth Earl of Northumberland, and a
retired person who seems to have passed the greater part of a long life in
Oxford "drinking nothing but ale," produced a very short collection
entitled _Coelia_, not very noteworthy, though it contains (probably in
imitation of Barnes) one of the tricky things called echo-sonnets, which,
with dialogue-sonnets and the like, have sometimes amused the leisure of
poets. Much more remarkable is the singular anonymous collection called
_Zepheria_. Its contents are called not sonnets but canzons, though most of
them are orthodox quatorzains somewhat oddly rhymed and rhythmed. It is
brief, extending only to forty pieces, and, like much of the poetry of the
period, begins and ends with Italian mottoes or dedication-phrases. But
what is interesting about it is the evidence it gives of deep familiarity
not only with Italian but with French models. This appears both in such
words as "jouissance," "thesaurise," "esperance," "souvenance," "vatical"
(a thoroughly Ronsardising word), with others too many to mention, and in
other characteristics. Mr. Sidney Lee, in his most valuable collection of
these sonneteers, endeavours to show that this French influence was less
uncommon than has sometimes been thought. Putting this aside, the
characteristic of _Zepheria_ is unchastened vigour, full of promise, but
decidedly in need of further schooling and discipline, as the following
will show:--

"O then Desire, father of Jouissance,
The Life of Love, the Death of dastard Fear,
The kindest nurse to true perseverance,
Mine heart inherited, with thy love's revere. [?]
Beauty! peculiar parent of Conceit,
Prosperous midwife to a travelling muse,
The sweet of life, Nepenthe's eyes receipt,
Thee into me distilled, O sweet, infuse!
Love then (the spirit of a generous sprite,
An infant ever drawing N